Wilderness to Water. Reflections regarding God's faithfulness, character, love, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. An examination of God's grace and power through meditative prose, poetry, original drawings and full-color photographs.

Tree of Alchemy"[evolutionary naturalists]...have not a well-supported scientific theory but a form of magic that masquerades as scientific theory...This form of magic is the view that something can be gotten from nothing...The transformation of nothing into something may involve minor expenditures of effort. For instance, the magician may need to utter 'abracadabra' or 'hocus pocus', likewise the Darwinian just-so stories that attempt to account for complex, information-rich biological structures are incantations that give the illusion of solving a problem but in fact merely cloak ignorance....We have become so accustomed to this something for nothing way of thinking that we no longer appreciate just how deeply magical it is." --Prof. William Dembski (mathematician/ philosopher, author)

"Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and cut down their Asherah poles. Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is jealous, is a jealous God." ---(Exodus 34: 12-14)

"The concept of a Creator God interferes with our sexual mores. Thus we have rationalized God out of existence. To us, he has become nothing more than the faint and disappearing smile of the cosmic Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland." --Sir Julian Huxley

* * * * * *

We have all seen and are quite familiar with the Darwin/Evolution-inspired icon, the so-called phylogenetic “Tree of Life”. The image has been etched into the minds of everyone, young and old alike.

“The Tree” spins an amazing Macro-Evolutinary tale, a truly mesmerizing “Just-So-Story” of magical import and implication. “The Tree” informs us in no uncertain terms that all of life, every domain, every kingdom, phylum, family and species that has ever existed, was somehow kick-started when... (Prest-O! Change-O!)... a microbial life entity suddenly appeared out of utterly lifeless matter, presumably pre-historic mud.

And then, the iconic Tree informs us, that this mud-born “common ancestor” for no particular reason, decided to pick itself up by its own primitive bootstraps and began to morph and modulate itself by a process known as “natural selection” into every wondrous category of life, flora and fauna, that has ever existed presumably including Richard Dawkins and Jesus Christ.

This Icon of Religious Naturalism (ie.,“The Tree”), has enjoyed a powerful spiritual hold on several generations of true believers today. The alchemists of Scientism have preached a good game. And multitudes today are held quite spellbound by the fundamentalist indoctrination of Evolutionism's religious intelligentsia and clergy.

The High Priests of The Tree of Life have faithfully informed every man, woman and child about the “good news” of Prophet, Priest and King- Charles Darwin. The message, that all of life, past and present, appeared out of the fertile loins of Mother Nature/Goddess Gaia...(and from her loins alone)... through the magic of evolution, has become their unassailable gospel.

Hallelujah! From mud to man without really trying! Just imagine!

* * * * * * *

During the Bronze Age in the vast geographic region stretching from Babylon to Egypt known as “The Fertile Crescent", there was another prominent and venerated “tree”,.... the Tree of Ashtar, (aka, the Asherah Pole) . The Asherah Pole, symbolized the Dionysian power of nature, the unbridled, pleasure-driven and sexually charged worship style of sensuous materialism. Ashtar's “spirit-filled” adherents danced licentiously around the goddess's “tree of life” in the sacred groves and high places in ecstatic, adoring worship. Power was Ashtar's aim, and magic was her game.Ashtar (Ishtar)...nature/fertility goddess

Essentially, of course, these occult revelers were engaging in nothing more really than the self-adoration of pantheistic nature-worship. Theologians, anthropologists and archaeologists inform us that part of their “worship experience” included not only the worship of nature (ie., the worship of creation) but also the worshipful glorification of sex in a variety of aberrant and promiscuous forms, including prostitution and more..... And, oh yes, there was another significant and culturally acceptable “spin-off” practice generated by these trance-inducing Sacred Grove/ High Place worship services,.... the rite of passing live babies “through the fire”... ie., child sacrifice. Metaphysical Naturalism run amok Bronze Age-style.

Some things, it seems, never really change.

"Adam and Eve Expelled from the Garden", Gustave DoreScientism's ”Asherah Pole” certainly may appear different today. But is it really? I am persuaded that the new, revised and updated image of “Ashtar's Tree” is faithfully reprinted in every beginner's biology textbook in the chapter tagged “Macro-Evolution/Darwinism”.. The proclivity of man to worship idols is, of course, as old as sin. The first man, Adam, set the stage for all of human history when he “hid among the trees” (Genesis 3:8) in order to avoid the all-knowing gaze of nature's Intelligent Designer and Holy Creator. And, like Adam, we his progeny are hiding still.....

The idolatry of false religion doesn't die easily. Throughout the centuries, she has been arrayed in every imaginable cultural garb and attired in an endless variety of fetching finery and adorned with the latest technological baubles that sparkle in the night. For ages her sultry voice has enticed multitudes with mysterious arcane incantations. Her alluring, perfumed seduction has been masterful. The seductress has taken many forms throughout recorded human history. But the lying pimp behind her has always been the same.

Today, the self-proclaimed “Brights” (Humanists and Materialists), mystically under-girded by the counsel of this “the ancient religion”, proudly proclaim their atheistic freedom from the Creator's gaze. And, yes, you can spot them still today, entranced and dancing around this latest 21st century version of Ashtar's Tree. The Sacred Groves and High Places of academia are just as full now as they were during the heyday of Bronze Age paganism.

Lord, forgive us for not seeing Help us recognize The Sin. By your Grace and Mercy guide us By The Light of Truth again.

Help us recognize the problem; In this darkness, help us see, By the dawn of Revelation, Lord!...The Tree of Calvary!

* * * * * * *

“We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen.” (Acts 10: 39-40)

“Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice...For rebellion is like the sin of divination [witchcraft] and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.” (1Samuel 15: 22-23)